Gallery Talk in conjunction with the Marion Center for Photographic Artsat Santa Fe University of Art and Design:Saturday, October 27, 20123:00 pmTipton Hall, Santa Fe University of Art & Design

An astronomer and photographer, the work of Stephen Strom is embedded with a sense of wonder and a knowing connectivity. Strom's professional career included notable posts as as Lecturer in Astronomy at Harvard; Astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory; and Chairman of the Five College Astronomy Department. In 1978 Strom began taking photographs. The interest soon blossomed into a second profession; Strom has exhibited widely in the United States, has works in permanent collections, and his imagery has accompanied poems and essays in three publications.

For Strom it has been the landscape that has captivated most of his artistic interest. Geological formations, patters of the Earth's surface- the crust, the shell of the planet we call home are seen anew. Deserts and Canyons; sandstone formations and river rocks; bluffs, plateaus, and hillsides are all rhythmic and alive. There seems to be something ancient even primal about the spaces Strom frames. For us these expanses may at first seem stagnant and unchanging, but Strom somehow manages to remind us of a greater presence to time and place. These are more than landscapes, they are a record of time and place- they are a snapshot of an evolving history.

Strom's latest work, Earth and Mars verifies the relevance and intent of earlier work in a new and more powerful way. Views of Martian and Terrestrial landscapes are juxtaposed in the same body of work. Many may at first be surprised to find that the Martian and Terrestrial terrain are surprisingly similar. Both were subjected to a certain similarity of condition and force- wind, water, ancient volcanos and asteroid strikes. We find ourselves humbled by these works, and we sense a connective presence to literally everything around us. Even at great distances the laws of physics apply.

The retrospective includes new works from the Earth and Mars series as well as a sampling of pieces from six other bodes of work. Together the selection is a powerful reflection on the life, work, and philosophy of one man- scientist and artist Stephen Strom.